Thank you, Premier
Good afternoon.
As the Premier illuminated there are many benefits to having a Government sponsored Virtual Market.
Specifically, a virtual market allows:
- Businesses to have an online presence that increases their visibility internationally
- Promotes economic growth to smaller businesses, like vendors who typically would only be able to reach their customers in person on specified days
- Removes the technical barrier for those unable to open a merchant account with the local banks, by allowing users of the market to take advantage of existing payment processing through the Virtual Market
- Removes the financial burden associated with the costs of building standalone websites
We are excited about the opportunity to support some of our local vendors and those who would not typically be able to have an online presence. Businesses like your favorite baker that you only see on specified vending days, the retailer that has unique products that we know and love, but do not have the online presence for you to find them consistently. The service provider that offers mobile messages and the list goes on.
The goal is not to limit who can access the Virtual Market, but to create another opportunity for Bermudian entrepreneurs to get their products into the hands of their customers.
Since the 2018 Throne Speech, the BEDC team has been meeting with industry stakeholders, gathering information on how best to deliver on the objective, and finally reviewing proposals from five vendors to finally arrive at the selection of a vendor to partner with us to build the Virtual Market.
The BEDC team with approval from the Board selected Jahde Eve, founder of Code 441. Jahde founded Code 441 in 2014 with the goal to educate, inspire, and equip Bermudian boys and girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in technology. Since that time, he has done just that, working with partners to host Hackathons and training programmes and cams to support Bermudian youth.
Jahde’s proposal for the creation of the virtual Market provided us with the opportunity to continue to support Bermuda entrepreneurship but also allowed us to help him to continue his mandate to empower and mentor young people of Bermuda by encouraging them to embrace the current tech marketplace as builders and content creators.
For the BEDC this project is an opportunity to show how we can work collectively to solve a problem and empower our next generation simultaneously.
We look forward to working with Jahde and to sharing with you a solution that will create exponential opportunities for growth for Bermudians.
I will now turn it over to Jahde to say a few words.
Thank you